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What are most common causes of cruise control failure?

 

Hi,

I am also from Chicago and had this exact same problem happen this week. My mechanic brother inspected the TB for me after i told him the cruise control wasn't working. The plastic clip that holds the cruise control cable onto the TB melted off basically.

I assume you cannot buy the clip to reattach to the TB from Honda and they will make you purchase a complete new one for an outrageous price.

 

Alright so the plastic piece that connected the cruise control to the throttle body did snap off. The throttle body from Honda is 320 and installation I got for 87. Expensive fix for such a little plastic piece...

 

I am having the same issue with my cruise control...lights come on dash, but car doesn't hold speed after activation. Thanks to PA Honda's pictures, I traced the cable and found that the very end of the cruise control cable (with the little cylindrical retaining nub on the end) has detached from the spring-loaded circular piece attached to the throttle body. The cable appears to wrap around this piece (marked by the top red arrow on PA Honda's TB picture) about 3/4 of the way, and then it looks like the nub is supposed to fit into a notch to secure it. This "notch" in the circular piece appears to have broken, so that the cable is no longer secured (it's just hanging there unattached), thus explaining why my CC doesn't work. By the way, the CC cable on my car (2003 Accord EX Coupe - 4 cyl) is attached to a metal bracket on the throttle body with a nut, so the cable itself is very secure.

Now the question is whether this circular fitting is a part that can be replaced. The two parts (one for the main throttle cable and the other for the cruise control cable are attached to the throttle body by a nut, so I would imagine this could be removed. There are several springs in this area, so I don't know if parts are going to start flying after starting to remove everything. It seems like it would be a repair that should not cost too much if I had it done, since everything is very accessible.

I think I'm on the right track here, but I'd appreciate any additional feedback so that I am fully informed before going to the dealer.

Thanks again to PA Honda for making the diagnosis so much easier!

 

I have attached a picture to clarify what I was trying to explain in my first message. The area circled in black is where mine is broken. This is the "notch" where the nub at the very end of the cruise control cable is supposed to be secured. On mine, the nub just slips out since the notch is broken.

The red circled area is the nut that I was talking about. It seems like this could be removed so that the broken part could come off, but I might be oversimplifying this. Have any of you ever replaced this portion of the assembly and if so, how easy or difficult is it?

 

Yeah, it looks like it can be removed. Probably not all that difficult either.

The problem will be getting a new part. Honda doesn't sell the cable drums, so the official story is you gotta buy a new throttlebody(!). Maybe a junkyard??

 

Jim,

I was afraid of that. I can get a used one for about $75. Have you ever heard of a Honda dealer installing parts supplied by customers?

Maybe I could do it myself, but I have no manual and am not sure if this is a simple remove and replace or if there are other adjustments or things to watch out for. I would imagine there are also torque specs for the bolts that attach the TB to the engine. I have not worked on cars for a very long time, so this would have to be pretty straightforward for me to want to attempt the repair.

 

I have the same problem where the plastic part that hold the cruise control cable broke off. Shame on Honda for letting this happened on an otherwise exceptional piece of engineering!

To fix it I bought the Epoxy glue called steel weld (it contains two compounds, milky and black liquid, that you must mixed together) and glue the cable notch to the plastic end again. So far it is working well for me. Not bad for a $5 solution. Hopefully this post can help someone out there to save some money.

 

I was able to fix this without replacing the throttle body. Here are the steps I performed.

-Remove the throttle body
-Find a very sharp and small drill bit
-VERY gently and slowly drill a hole through the plastic wire guide
-The plastic is very fragile so be extra careful
-Thread through a zip tie but leave it very loose
-Reattach the throttle body
-Make sure to pass the cruise control cable through the zip tie loop
-Position the cruise control cable and tighten down the zip tie to capture the cable

Below are three pictures I took of the process.